SHORT COMMUNICATION
On the earliest written descriptions of the
Moluccan megapode Eulipoa wallacei and its
peculiar nesting behaviour
C.J. Heij
Natuurmuseum Rotterdam
The Moluccan megapode Eulipoa wallacei
made its entry in the scientific zoological litera-
ture in 1860. First as a species without a name
in a letter of Alfred Russel Wallace published
in Ibis (Wallace 1860) in which he reported the
find in 1858 of "…a new Megapodius, I think,
handsomely banded on the back …" on the
island of Gilolo (now Halmahera); and subse-
quently as Megapodius wallacei, by G.E. Gray
in the official first description (Gray 1860)
based on two study skins Wallace had forward-
ed to the British Museum of Natural History.
This does not mean that the Moluccan mega-
pode remained unnoticed in pre-Linnaean
times, when all organisms roamed the earth
unnamed. Heij et al. (1997) judged the vivid
description of its nesting behaviour by Nicolaus
Nuñes (1576) as the first known written report
on Eulipoa wallacei.
However, mr W. Buijze and dr P. Schreurs
recently traced and translated three older sources
concerning encounters of early Portuguese
visitors with megapodes in the Moluccas. They
will be described and discussed below. Integral
translations are printed in italics and put
between double commas.
1563
Antonio Galvao, captain of Ternate Island in
the years 1536-1540, writing about the islands
* Batachina de Moro = Halmahera; 'Moro' is still in use in Morotai, an island close to Halmahera.
DEINSEA 8 [2001]: 253-255
of Tidore and Ambon, reported: "… there is a
small kind of fowl that lays very large eggs in
the soil, deeper than the length of one and a
half arm, dug with their feet." (Galvao 1563).
1556
On 19 November 1556 Luis Frois reported: "In
the land of Moro* there are fowl living in the
wild, smaller than ours, with colours like our
partridge. They lay eggs as large or even
larger as those of a duck; with much more yolk.
These fowl lay eggs in soft soil, like the beach
or in the wilderness, at a great depth of almost
an arm length, and leave them there. Some say
they lay two eggs next to each other. Only incu-
bated by the heat of the sun, the chicks hatch.
They survive without food and without the care
of their mothers. Local people told the Jesuit
priests that they saw the birds bore their bur-
row without scratching, until they leave their
eggs behind. Local rulers have forbidden to kill
these birds because of the large numbers of
eggs that are being found and used as an
important source of food for humans."
(Frois 1556).
1544
In 'A treatise on the Moluccas', published in
(circa) 1544 and generally regarded as the pre-
liminary version of Antonio Galvao's lost
'Historia das Molucas' there is a passage that
253

reads: "There are some wild birds that some-
what resemble partridges; they are a little big-
ger and incline to black, and they run like
them. They lay their eggs, which look like duck
eggs and also larger, in pits and holes they
make in the ground, a cubit deep; and on these
they heap still more sand; and there they breed
and raise their offspring while these are small."
(Galvao 1544).
DISCUSSION
Galvao (1563) undoubtedly writes about
Eulipoa wallacei. The location (Tidore) is with-
in the distributional range of the species, and
the habit of digging deep burrows in the soil
with their feet and laying large eggs in it (in the
Moluccas) only applies to Eulipoa. See Jones et
al. (1995) for general information on the nesting
habits and distribution of the 22 species of
megapodes.
Figure 1 The first (and accurate!) description of Eulipoa wallacei and its breeding behaviour, written in Portugese by Frois (1556).
254
DEINSEA 8, 2001
Frois (1556) could not have given a better sum-
mary of the (breeding)biology of Eulipoa wal-
lacei: size - 'smaller than our fowl'; plumage -
'like a partridge'; egg size - 'large'; egg contents
- 'much more yolk'; nest - a self dug burrow;
depth of burrow - 'an arm length'; heat source
for incubation - sun; parental care - none. The
only inaccuracies are the (secondary) observa-
tions that 'two eggs are laid side by side' and
that they 'bore burrows without scratching'. The
fact that Luis Frois wrote that local law protects
the bird because of the importance of the large
numbers of eggs as a source of food for man, is
an outstanding observation. It proves that the
tradition of harvesting Eulipoa-eggs in combi-
nation with the protection by local law (adat) of
the (adult) birds and their nesting grounds,
dates back much longer than was known before:
Heij et al. (1997) give Van Hoëvell (1875) and
Martin (1894) as the first references of sys-
HEIJ: the earliest descriptions of Eulipoa wallacei
tematic Eulipoa-egg harvesting in the
Moluccas. Wallace (1869), in his accurate
description of the habitus and habits of the bird
he had discovered for science, wrote about the
eggs: "They are very good eating, and much
sought after by the natives.".
With regard to the identity of the bird described
by Galvao (1544), I have some doubts. The
observation that the bird 'lay their eggs …in
holes they make in the ground … and on these
they heap still more sand' does imply more than
just the quick cover up of the burrow as is done
by Eulipoa. One may even regard 'on these
they heap still more sand' as mound building
activities (not done by Eulipoa but invariably
done by the sympatric Megapodius species: M.
forstenii on Seram and satellite islands and M.
freycinet on Halmahera). The addition '… and
there they breed and raise their offspring while
these are small' can not apply to any megapode
(see: Jones et al. 1995) but comes closer to the
habit of M. forstenii and M. freycinet to stay
close to or even on their mound most of the
time (Heij, pers. obs.), while Eulipoa leaves the
nesting ground immediately after the egg has
been laid and does only return to lay (in a new
burrow) when another egg has matured after an
average of 13 days (Heij et al. 1997). As to
plumage colour, Galvao's observation that 'they
incline to black' comes much closer to the
colour of both M. freycinet (all-black) and M.
forstenii (dark brownish grey) than to Eulipoa
who is more piedly coloured, being olive-
brown and bluish-grey with maroon bands on
the upper parts and slate grey below (see: Jones
et al. 1995).
In conclusion, until older sources are being
found, we can safely label Frois (1556) as the
earliest written description of the (nesting
behaviour of the) Moluccan megapode and the
harvesting of its eggs by man. Galvano (1544)
probably described Megapodius freycinet.
Correspondence: dr C.J. Heij, Natuurmuseum Rotterdam, P.O. Box 23452, NL-
3001 KL Rotterdam, the Netherlands; e-mail natuurmuseum@nmr.nl
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank mr W. Buijze and dr P. Schreurs who
traced and translated the early Portugese sources
discussed in this short communication.
Mr C.W. Moeliker helped compiling this note.
REFERENCES
Frois, L., 1556 - Malacca, November 19, 1556 - page 189
in: Jacobs, H.Th.M., 1974 (ed.) - Documenta Historica
Malucensia, Vol. 1 (1542-1577) - Monumenta Historica
Societatis Iesu, Rome
Galvao, A., 1544 - A treatise on the Moluccas (probably the
preliminary version of Antonio Galvao's lost 'Historia
das Molucas') - page 64-65 in: Jacobs, H.Th.M., (ed.) -
Sources and studies for the history of the jesuits, Vol. III
- Jesuit Historical Institute, Rome / St. Louis University,
St. Louis
Galvao, A., 1563 - Tratrado dos Descobrimentos -
Bibliotheca Historia de Portugal e Brazil - Livraria
Civilizacao, Porto (p. 173)
Gray, G.E., 1860 - List of birds collected by mr Wallace at
the Molucca Islands, with descriptions of new species,
etc. - Proceedings Zoological Society London 1860:
341-366
Heij, C.J., Rompas, C.F.E. & Moeliker, C.W., 1997 - The
biology of the Moluccan megapode Eulipoa wallacei
(Aves, Galliformes, Megapodiidae) on Haruku and other
Moluccan Islands; part 2: final report - Deinsea 3: 1-124
Jones, D.N., Dekker, R.W.R.J., & Roselaar, C.S., 1995 -
The Megapodes - Bird Families of the World, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, New York, Tokyo
Martin, K., 1894 - Reisen in den Molukken, in Ambon, den
Uliassern, Seran (Ceram) und Buru - E.J. Brill, Leiden
Nuñes, N,. 1576 - Goa, January 4, 1576 - page 679 in:
Jacobs, H.Th.M., 1974 (ed.) - Documenta Historica
Malucensia, Vol. 1 (1542-1577) - Monumenta Historica
Societatis Iesu, Rome
Van Hoëvell, G.W.W.C., 1875 - Ambon en meer bepaalde
lijk de Oeliassers, Geographisch, Etnographisch, poli-
tisch en Historisch - Blussé en van Braam, Dordrecht
Wallace, A.R., 1860 - Communication, in: Letters, Extracts
from Correspondence, Notices, & c. - Ibis 2: 197-199
Wallace, A.R., 1869 - The Malay Archipelago - MacMillan,
London
received 18 August 1999
accepted 15 September 2001
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